14 DAY TRIAL // Doodles are Google's trademark, but that doesn't mean others can't do the same with their websites. And since China has a much better view on "copying" than much of the rest of the world, the fact that Baidu would run a "doodle" on its already very Googly homepage is not surprising.
But, whereas Google tries to celebrate notable scientists and artists, Baidu is going for the much lower hanging fruit, nationalism.
Japan and China are engaged in a bitter dispute about a few rocks in the Pacific. As is the case in all of this kind of disputes, "historic" ownership or the actual rocks in question are of little interest, the value is in the resources around them.
Naturally, both countries claim these small islands and naturally, the dispute has degenerated into nationalistic pride. Nationalistic pride which, something that's never happened before, led to violence and attacks on Japanese companies and stores in China.
Baidu decided to calm spirits by running a doodle of the islands with a huge Chinese flag on top of them. If that doesn't make sense to you, it's because it shouldn't.
But that's what Baidu is saying, the doodle was put there to promote peaceful discussion. Certainly, it wasn't designed to score a few easy image points by appealing to the populist sentiment.
"The overwhelming majority of Baidu’s employees and users clearly feel very strongly on this topic, but our purpose was to encourage people to be rational in their expressions of patriotism, to renounce violence and other forms of extremism," Baidu said in a statement.
"Planting a digital flag to express your feelings on the matter of the Diaoyu Islands is a much better alternative to throwing rocks or smashing cars," it added.
This is obviously true. Also true is that private companies are probably better off staying out of political debates, especially international ones.